Last Movie You Watched and Rate It | Movie-mber Edition

[Osprey]

Shadow in the Cloud (2020) - 3/10 (Really disliked it)

During WWII, a flight officer (Chloe Grace Moretz) boards a B-17 bomber with orders to deliver a secret package, but has to fight with the crew, enemy planes and... a gremlin... to complete her mission. Starting as soon as she steps aboard (and continuing for half of the film), she endures constant crude and sexist comments from the all-male crew that are over the top and insulting (to women and men, especially WWII servicemen). They put her in the bottom turret, which is the only spare seat on the plane. Where the crew member is that usually takes that position and why they would fly into a combat zone without a replacement, who knows. Most of the first half of the film takes place in that ball turret, with her locked in, and there are a few moments of claustrophobia and excitement that aren't bad. Just as the plot starts to become clear and promising, though, the movie veers wildly into ridiculous action sequences throughout and even outside of the plane to a soundtrack that sounds a lot like the Stranger Things theme (because nothing says "WWII" like 80s synthesizer music). By the end, she's done everything better than the useless flight crew, except for dying. Moretz is also the best actor of the bunch, though that's not saying much because most of the others aren't good, especially over the comms. The visuals and special effects are also unconvincing, making it too obvious that it was shot on a sound stage with green screens. At least the whole thing flies by (pun intended) and is over quickly at only 83 minutes long with the credits. If you feel like an odd combination of WWII aerial action, gremlin mischief, feminism and synthesizer music, it might appeal to you as popcorn entertainment; otherwise, I'd skip it, at least until it's available to stream for free.

For the basic premise done better, I recommend watching this, instead:

Spoiler

 

[kihei]

Stalag 17 (1953) Directed by Billy Wilder 7A

In a German prisoner-of-war camp during World War II, a barracks full of sergeants cope with captivity. To the resentment of many, J. J. Sefton (William Holden) fares better than everyone else by setting up his own black market, gambling operation and liquor distribution network. When it becomes clear that the barracks has a spy, all eyes turn to J.J. who seems the obvious suspect, certainly the one guy that no one likes nor feels any sympathy toward. He gets a good thrashing by his fellow prisoners despite his protestations of innocence. But J.J. hasn’t survived this long without having a cunning head on his shoulders. He sets out to discover who the real culprit is. Stalag 17 is a prison-camp comedy played for laughs, extremely broad laughs much of the time. The movie is based on a successful Broadway play, and I can readily see why a stage would be the better venue for this work. Some of the more outlandish comedy bits would have played well to the balcony but such a low-comedy approach seems too in-your-face on a movie screen. Still, Holden gives a likeable performance, the plot is engaging, and the ending is a satisfying one. Despite the fact that the movie does look quite dated now, Stalag 17 is still worth seeing.

YouTube

 

[Rabid Ranger]

Just watched Ronin (w/DeNiro). I've seen it before but really enjoyed watching it again despite the McGuffin (which I generally hate in movies but it worked here). Excellent cast and great action. My only ding is the tedious Jean Reno voice over at the very end. 8/10.

 

[JetsWillFly4Ever]

Palm Springs: 8.5/10

I'm not sure where this movie really came from but a romcom featuring Andy Samberg shouldn't leave me feeling emotions! What a good film, a very pleasant surprise.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

La Jetée (1962) - Absolutely perfect and breathtaking. A masterpiece. The best film that I've seen since I watched Last Year at Marienbad in 2019 (and is it the same person narrating each film?). This short film (28 minutes) is the film that inspired 12 Monkeys but in terms of quality, there is no comparison to make. The latter does not even reach the former's ankle. Hell, not even its toe. The technical delivery is not seen often, especially in narrative fiction film. Presented as a 'Photo-roman' (Picture novel), the entire film is presented through a series of gorgeous photographs and the story is narrated much like a short story. Paris is destroyed, much of humanity live underground. Scientists finally find a prisoner who is able to sustain the mental strain of time traveling. He visits the past and the future and falls in love with the past. He obsesses over a childhood memory at Orly Airport where he used to observe commercial planes. He remembers a woman. They meet. He comes and goes. She accepts that. What follows is a story that is equally effective as a science-fiction story and as a beautiful love story/fairy tale. I don't know if you can call them actors or performances, but their choreography and features make for more effective protagonists (probably highly accentuated by the immacutely written and spoken prose detailing the story) than what you get in Gilliam's movie, which somehow feels more convoluted and pompous. There is nothing that this movie does wrong. Even the order in which the pictures are presented is enthralling. The writing, cinematography and sound recording are dimes.

For the folks who understand French, there it is. You can use english subtitles, but I think they're terrible. I'm sure a good version could be found somewhere.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

La Jetée (1962) - Absolutely perfect and breathtaking. A masterpiece. The best film that I've seen since I watched Last Year at Marienbad in 2019 (and is it the same person narrating each film?). This short film (28 minutes) is the film that inspired 12 Monkeys but in terms of quality, there is no comparison to make. The latter does not even reach the former's ankle. Hell, not even its toe. The technical delivery is not seen often, especially in narrative fiction film. Presented as a 'Photo-roman' (Picture novel), the entire film is presented through a series of gorgeous photographs and the story is narrated much like a short story. Paris is destroyed, much of humanity live underground. Scientists finally find a prisoner who is able to sustain the mental strain of time traveling. He visits the past and the future and falls in love with the past. He obsesses over a childhood memory at Orly Airport where he used to observe commercial planes. He remembers a woman. They meet. He comes and goes. She accepts that. What follows is a story that is equally effective as a science-fiction story and as a beautiful love story. I don't know if you can call them actors or performances, but their choreography and features make for more effective protagonists (probably highly accentuated by the immacutely written and spoken prose detailing the story) than what you get in Gilliam's movie, which somehow feels more convoluted and pompous. There is nothing that this movie does wrong. Even the order in which the pictures are presented is enthralling. The writing, cinematography and sound recording are dimes.

For the folks who understand French, there it is. You can use english subtitles, but I think they're terrible. I'm sure a good version could be found somewhere.

Amazing indeed, and not Marker's best film - try to get your hands on Sans Soleil.

 

[nameless1]

Stalag 17 (1953) Directed by Billy Wilder 7A

In a German prisoner-of-war camp during World War II, a barracks full of sergeants cope with captivity. To the resentment of many, J. J. Sefton (William Holden) fares better than everyone else by setting up his own black market, gambling operation and liquor distribution network. When it becomes clear that the barracks has a spy, all eyes turn to J.J. who seems the obvious suspect, certainly the one guy that no one likes nor feels any sympathy toward. He gets a good thrashing by his fellow prisoners despite his protestations of innocence. But J.J. hasn’t survived this long without having a cunning head on his shoulders. He sets out to discover who the real culprit is. Stalag 17 is a prison-camp comedy played for laughs, extremely broad laughs much of the time. The movie is based on a successful Broadway play, and I can readily see why a stage would be the better venue for this work. Some of the more outlandish comedy bits would have played well to the balcony but such a low-comedy approach seems too in-your-face on a movie screen. Still, Holden gives a likeable performance, the plot is engaging, and the ending is a satisfying one. Despite the fact that the movie does look quite dated now, Stalag 17 is still worth seeing.

YouTube

I have wrote about this before, but this one is just not believable to me. This feels more like camp than prison camp, and I have a hard time to believe that World War II Prisoner of War camps are like this.

There is a difference between POW camps and concentration camps, and most of the images people have of World War II camps are from the latter, but I honestly do not believe German POWs are treated that well. Germans respect the rules of engagement a lot more than the Japanese, but once it was being pushed back in the latter half of the war, as this movie is set in, supplies and food are rationed, and POWs are the first to be hit.

I did study History as my major, but 20th century European history is not my forte, so perhaps I am misinformed here. If anyone has any clear idea, I would love a confirmation or straight up rejection.

 

[OzzyFan]

Where did you see News of the World? I just want to see if I can stream it anywhere.

I really liked Leave No Trace. Ben Foster is a great talent, but I find that he tends to overact, mainly because he is just so intense in every role. At any moment, I feel he will just fly off the handle. For this one, he really dialed it back, and it helped.

Saw News of the World in a movie theater on Long Island, NY. No idea if it's streaming anywhere.

I guess I can see that angle on Ben Foster. Ironically, I think he's heavily into meditation practice.

 

[Osprey]

I have wrote about this before, but this one is just not believable to me. This feels more like camp than prison camp, and I have a hard time to believe that World War II Prisoner of War camps are like this.

There is a difference between POW camps and concentration camps, and most of the images people have of World War II camps are from the latter, but I honestly do not believe German POWs are treated that well. Germans respect the rules of engagement a lot more than the Japanese, but once it was being pushed back in the latter half of the war, as this movie is set in, supplies and food are rationed, and POWs are the first to be hit.

I did study History as my major, but 20th century European history is not my forte, so perhaps I am misinformed here. If anyone has any clear idea, I would love a confirmation or straight up rejection.

FWIW, Stalag 17 (the play) and The Great Escape (the novel) were both written by former POWs in German camps during WWII, so they were there and their depictions of how the men were treated are pretty similar. I read The Great Escape in high school and recall it being very similar to the film, so it's not like the film took great liberties with the source in that case. Also, there were hundreds of thousands of former POWs that were presumably still around in the 50s and 60s You'd think that we would've heard their objections to the depictions of the camps, yet I don't think that I've ever heard of anything like that.

I happen to be reading an interesting book (A Higher Call) that is based on extensive interviews with American and German WWII pilots. According to the pilots, both the Germans and Western Allies made it a goal to treat their POWs well so that they would write back home (yes, POWs were allowed to send and receive mail) and tell people how well they were being treated, which might then encourage better treatment for their own soldiers being detained by the enemy. In other words, the Germans treated Allied POWs well because they feared that their German POWs were being mistreated by the Allies.

Also, not every German soldier was a Nazi or sympathetic to them. One of the interviewed German pilots bristled at the suggestion that he was a Nazi because, as he pointed out, only those who joined the Party were Nazis and he came from an anti-Nazi family. He and a great many (probably even a majority) of German soldiers and pilots had no love for the Nazis but weren't allowed to express it and served for the sake of their country, not the party running it. Getting to the point, there's a report that German guards actually helped acquire items needed by the Allied tunnelers who pulled off "The Great Escape." If German guards would actually sympathize to that extent with Allied POWs, it's not hard to imagine that they would at least treat them well. Also, he noted that German officers liked to interact with and talk to Allied POWs because it gave them a chance to practice their English and see if the Allies were the monsters that their propaganda painted them as. When they likely discovered that they weren't, it probably fostered even more sympathy.

You're probably right that supplies and food were rationed more near the end of the war and that likely impacted the POWs, but that's also when the Red Cross got rolling. Reportedly, they sent 27 million relief packages to POWs during the last two years of the war. I imagine that that helped make up for some of the rationing.

Anyways, who knows how representative these films really are, and probably not all POWs had it as well as others, but it seems possible that the films may be composites of things and situations that did occur.

Edit: That was a longer post than I planned for, thanks to being bored during the latter half of CAN-RUS.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

I need to sit for a bit and eat a sandwich and watch something in black and white for a bit that's less stupid.

I watched something less stupid but I had a burger instead of a sandwich.

After The Thin Man (1936) - 7/10

Everyone's favourite alcoholic detective in which the detective story becomes an annoying background to the hilarious relationship with his adorable wife. Actually the last 10 minutes with the big reveal aren't bad but the rest of the detective story is ignorable and unfascinating.

 

[nameless1]

FWIW, Stalag 17 (the play) and The Great Escape (the novel) were both written by former POWs in German camps during WWII, so they were there and their depictions of how the men were treated are pretty similar. I read The Great Escape in high school and recall it being very similar to the film, so it's not like the film took great liberties with the source in that case. Also, there were over a million former POWs that were presumably still around in the 50s and 60s when these stories were popular. You'd think that we would've heard their objections to the depictions of the camps, yet I don't think that I've ever heard of anything like that.

I happen to be reading an interesting book (A Higher Call) that is based on extensive interviews with American and German WWII pilots. According to the pilots, both the Germans and Western Allies made it a goal to treat their POWs well so that they would write back home (yes, POWs were allowed to send and receive mail) and tell people how well they were being treated, which might then encourage better treatment for their own soldiers being detained by the enemy. In other words, the Germans treated Allied POWs well because they feared that their own soldiers were being mistreated.

Also, not every German soldier was sympathetic to the Nazis. One of the interviewed German pilots bristled at the suggestion that he was a Nazi because, as he pointed out, only those who joined the Nazi party were Nazi and he came from an anti-Nazi family. He and a great many (probably even a majority) of German soldiers and pilots didn't like the Nazis but weren't allowed to express it. Getting to the point, there's a report that German guards actually helped acquire items needed by the Allied tunnelers who pulled off "The Great Escape." If German guards would actually sympathize to that extent with Allied POWs, it's not hard to imagine that they would at least treat them well.

You're probably right that supplies and food were rationed more near the end of the war, but that's also when the Red Cross got rolling. Reportedly, they delivered 27 million relief packages to POWs during the last two years of the war. I imagine that that helped make up for some of what the POWs were lacking because of rationing by their captors.

Anyways, who knows how representative these films really are, and probably not all POWs had it as well as others, but it seems possible that the films may be composites of things that happened.

Edit: That was a longer post than I planned for, thanks to being bored during the latter half of CAN-RUS.

Yeah, I appreciate the post. I have adjusted how I view the movie now. Even though it is still not my favourite, I probably will have the same grade as kihei.

If you are interested, I found an article about the experience of a real Stalag 17 survivor. It matches up with what you wrote, but he also points at a more sinister undertone too, though not very often.

 

[Osprey]

Yeah, I appreciate the post. I have adjusted how I view the movie now. Even though it is still not my favourite, I probably will have the same grade as kihei.

If you are interested, I found an article about the experience of a real Stalag 17 survivor. It matches up with what you wrote, but he also points at a more sinister undertone too, though not very often.

Yeah, I'm sure that they'd be severely punished if they openly disrespected them or did some of the things depicted in Hogan's Heroes. That show is fun, but there's no doubt that it's a farce. I imagine that Stalag 17 and The Great Escape paint a little more accurate picture of how prisoners behaved.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Recently watched Indian Horse and The Grizzlies... both had similar storylines about the struggles of Indigenous teens/children in Canada, and hockey/lacrosse as their means of escapism.

Learned some upsetting things watching these films I never knew about, particularly the Canadian Residential School System.

Pretty brutal stuff, and both of these films don’t play shy.

The path each film takes is a tough watch and kept me thinking about their respective messages days later.

 

[nameless1]

Recently watched Indian Horse and The Grizzlies... both had similar storylines about the struggles of Indigenous teens/children in Canada, and hockey/lacrosse as their means of escapism.

Learned some upsetting things watching these films I never knew about, particularly the Canadian Residential School System.

Pretty brutal stuff, and both of these films don’t play shy.

The path each film takes is a tough watch and kept me thinking about their respective messages days later.

Recently, there is a boon in Aboriginal filmmaking, and I have been privileged to see dozens of very decent works. The residential school system is a painful chapter for many First Nations people, and almost every movie reference it as the source or genesis of many issues that plagues the communities today. That said, I do find all the filmmakers tend to lay thick on the pathos, and while I sympathize with their plight, the movies can feel biased and one sided at times. When I watch the movies, I am moved, and I am glad audiences will get to see their point of view, but I cannot help but wonder if there is more to what they show. The problems are so deeply rooted, that there logically has to be more than one explanation.

I saw both at the film festival here, and at the Indian Horse show, there was a big ceremony by First Nation elders, with a big prayer and blessing. After the show, a lot of the audience stood up and shared their personal stories, and how the movie resonated with them. You cannot be helped but moved by their tales, and my grade also increased. Now I look back, in terms of quality, the movie is probably a 6.5 to 6.75/10, mainly because of the thick pathos I previously mentioned, but I have to give it a 9 after I saw how much it meant to the people in the audience. It is cathartic for them, and it is part of their healing process, and I cannot deny how much the movie means to them. It was a very surreal moment.

I have the Grizzlies much lower. Again, it is also great to see Aboriginal contents, but this one is too formulaic and thus predictable. In the epilogue, the filmmakers even openly admits that they changed some details, clearly to fit the narrative better. Thus, it is 5.5/10 for me. I enjoyed the feel-good story, and I think it worked well, but it is rather forgettable.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Recently, there is a boon in Aboriginal filmmaking, and I have been privileged to see dozens of very decent works. The residential school system is a painful chapter for many First Nations people, and almost every movie reference it as the source or genesis of many issues that plagues the communities today. That said, I do find all the filmmakers tend to lay thick on the pathos, and while I sympathize with their plight, the movies can feel biased and one sided at times. When I watch the movies, I am moved, and I am glad audiences will get to see their point of view, but I cannot help but wonder if there is more to what they show. The problems are so deeply rooted, that there logically has to be more than one explanation.

I saw both at the film festival here, and at the Indian Horse show, there was a big ceremony by First Nation elders, with a big prayer and blessing. After the show, a lot of the audience stood up and shared their personal stories, and how the movie resonated with them. You cannot be helped but moved by their tales, and my grade also increased. Now I look back, in terms of quality, the movie is probably a 6.5 to 6.75/10, mainly because of the thick pathos I previously mentioned, but I have to give it a 9 after I saw how much it meant to the people in the audience. It is cathartic for them, and it is part of their healing process, and I cannot deny how much the movie means to them. It was a very surreal moment.

I have the Grizzlies much lower. Again, it is also great to see Aboriginal contents, but this one is too formulaic and thus predictable. In the epilogue, the filmmakers even openly admits that they changed some details, clearly to fit the narrative better. Thus, it is 5.5/10 for me. I enjoyed the feel-good story, but it is rather predictable and forgettable.

The Grizzles is definitely following a tried and true plot with out of touch teacher who has a kind heart helps at risk teens.

I believe Blackboard Jungle was the first to try this genre, but when done right, it can still make for a great film.

Some plot points were predictable in The Grizzlies, but there was enough unexpected twists and realism in there that I enjoyed the film.

I thought de Pencier did a good job of showing their hopelessness without ever exploiting it.

 

[kihei]

Not the kind of socially conscious cinema that you guys are talking about, but if people get a chance, they should see Atanarjuat: the Fast Runner, by Inuit director Zacharias Kunuk. About a naked man running for his life in the frozen Arctic. Terrific movie.

 

[kihei]

The Uninvited (1944) Directed by Lewis Allen 6A

Roderick (Ray Milland) and Pamela, brother and sister, decide to buy an old, deserted house by the cliffs overlooking the ocean near Cornwall, England. The old codger who sells the house to them isn’t completely forthcoming about its history, and he is very protective of his pretty, young granddaughter who is slowing becoming more curious about her past. When strange sounds are heard in the hallways of the old house at night, Roderick and Pamela vow to get to the bottom of the mystery. A period piece more quaint than threatening, The Uninvited is a ghost story, way too genteel to be referred to as a horror movie, which it definitely isn’t. That, however, doesn’t prevent it from being a good movie. It has a few spooky moments that might cause a slight, brief shiver but nothing scarier than that. However, the story telling is first rate, the characters have a vintage charm, and the atmosphere is quite appealing. Ray Milland is sort of the forgotten actor from this period, and The Uninvited reminded me of how good he is in the kind of leading man roles that require assurance with a hint of skepticism.

YouTube

 

[NyQuil]

Yeah, I'm sure that they'd be severely punished if they openly disrespected them or did some of the things depicted in Hogan's Heroes. That show is fun, but there's no doubt that it's a farce. I imagine that Stalag 17 and The Great Escape paint a little more accurate picture of how prisoners behaved.

The most accurate portrayal of behind-the-lines life in World War II is provided by the documentary series 'Allo 'Allo.

 

[Chili]

From memory some other interesting p.o.w. films

Bridge on the River Kwai-the classic
Von Ryan's Express-One of Sinatra's best
The One That Got Away-incredible story, the film pretty much mirrors the book
The Colditz Story-based on a true story
King Rat
Unbroken-great book, very dark film
The Great Raid
Empire of the Sun
The McKenzie Break-very loosely based on real incidents

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Amazing indeed, and not Marker's best film - try to get your hands on Sans Soleil.

You jerks are stepping on my movie club ideas!!

 

[Chili]

Five Graves to Cairo-1943

An soldier is left behind when the British evacuate an area of North Africa in WWII. When the Germans arrive he is forced to assume the identity of the hotel waiter who had just been killed in an air attack. He learns of a major German secret that could prove vital to the war in the desert...the Five Graves to Cairo. Good spy yarn, an early Billy Wilder film.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Cape Fear 1962 version has higher ratings but 1991 version I'm guessing is the more entertaining/enjoyable of the two or no?

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Watched La Jetée again in a sort of obsessive itch, as I'm unable to get it out of my head. Without gushing in a ramble, can't help but think it's the best novelistic adaptation of a story that was never written as literature. Or at least, the best way a film has ever portrayed literary readings: a series of immobile flashes presented by words without (or a slight hint) of physical movement. Deceptively simple in its delivery but probably insanely difficult to pull off with a camera. One hell of an achievement. Pieces like that or David Markson's Wittgenstein's Mistress really make one realize that conventional, mainstream arcs are what is false and unrealistic and that techniques such as jumpcuts or scattered thoughts are what presents human truth and reality. Not that one or the other heightens or diminshes the art or its value but presentations that are often deemed avant-garde (what a brutal, awful term) or experimental are far more true to life than what many viewers and critics deem realistic fiction or narratives. Another way (mainstream) art has informed life instead of the other way around.

 

[kihei]

Antebellum (2020) Directed by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz 2A

Jordan Peele has demonstrated that horror movies and racial commentary can be a surprisingly potent mixture. Writer/directors Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, not so much--like, not at all. Antebellum tries to show how the attitudes of the Confederacy are alive and well among white racists in the present day States. While the premise could work well as a horror film if handled with a degree of finesse, Antebellum makes a godawful, tasteless hash out of it. That's too kind, actually. This movie is the ugliest, stupidest, most ill-advised flick of the year--with its monumentally dumb "twist" visible from miles away. The acting is moronically garish, and character development is....like, is there something lower than "one dimensional"? The script is so bad that even on the most desperate day of his life M. Night Shyamalan would pass on it. Janelle Monae has star potential to burn, so hopefully she survives this mess. However, Antebellum has got to be a candidate for all the Razzie Awards out there.

Prime Video

 

[Spawn]

Antebellum (2020) Directed by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz 3A

Jordan Peele has demonstrated that horror movies and racial commentary can be a surprisingly potent mixture. Writer/directors Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, not so much--like, not at all. Antebellum tries to show how the attitudes of the Confederacy are alive and well among white people in the present day States. While the premise isn't necessarily outlandish if handled with a degree of subtlety, Antebellum makes a godawful, tasteless hash out of it. That's too kind, actually. This movie is the ugliest, stupidest, most ill-advised flick of the year--with its monumentally dumb "twist" visible from miles away. The acting is moronically garish, and character development is....like, is there something lower than "one dimensional"? The script is so bad that even on the most desperate day of his life M. Night Shyamalan would pass on it. Janelle Monae has star potential to burn, so hopefully she survives this mess. However, Antebellum has got to be a candidate for all the Razzie Awards out there.

Prime Video

After reading your little review I'm surprised you even gave it a 3. Why so high lol?